1. The KiwiThe kiwi lives only in New Zealand. It is a very strange bird because it cannot fly.The kiwi is the same size as a chicken. It has no wings or tail. It does not have any

feathers like other birds. It has hair on its body. Each foot has four toes. Its beak (mouth) is very long.

A kiwi likes a lot of trees around it. It sleeps during the day because the sunlight hurt its eyes. It can smell things with its nose. It is the only bird in the world that can smell things. The kiwi’s eggs are very big.

There are only a few kiwis in New Zealand now. People never see them. The government says that people cannot kill kiwis. New Zealanders want their kiwis to live.

There is a picture of a kiwi on New Zealand money. People from New Zealand are sometimes called kiwis.

2. The CamelThe camel can go without water for a long time. Some people think it stores water in

its hump. This is not true. It stores food its hump. The camel’s body changes the food into fat. Then it stores the fat in its hump. It cannot store the fat all over its body. Fat all over an animal’s body keeps the animal warm. Camels live in the desert. They do not want to be warm during the day.

The desert is very hot. The camel gets hotter and hotter during the day. It stores this heat in its body because the nights are cool.

The Arabian camel has one hump. The Bactrian camel of Central Asia has two humps. It also has long, thick hair because the winters are cold in Central Asia.

There is a lot of sand in the desert. The camel has long eyelashes. Then the sand cannot go into the camel’s eyes.

Arabic has about 150 words to describe a camel. Arabs need all these words because the camel is very important to them.

3. The Polar Bear

The polar bear is a very big white bear. We call it the Polar bear because it lives inside the Arctic Circle near the North Pole. There are no polar bears at the South Pole.

The polar bear lives in the snow and ice. At the North Polar there is only snow, ice, and water. There is not only land. You cannot see the polar bear in the snow because its coat is yellow-white. It has a very warm coat because the weather is cold north of the Arctic Circle.

This bear is three meters long, and it weighs 450 kilos. It can stand up on its back legs because it has very wide feet. It can use its front legs like arms. The polar bear can swim very well. It catches fish and sea animals for food. It goes into the sea when it is afraid.

People like to kill the polar bear for its beautiful white coat. The governments of Canada, the United States, and Russia say that no one can kill polar bears now. They do not want all of these beautiful animals to die.

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4. The Dolphin.

Can dolphin talk? Maybe they can’t talk with words, but they talk with sounds. They show their feeling with sounds.

Dolphins travel in a group. We call a group of fish a “school” They don’t study, but they travel together. Dolphins are mammal, not fish, but they swim together in a school.

Dolphins talk to the other dolphins in the school. They give information. They tell when they are happy or sad or afraid. They say “Welcome” when a dolphin comes back to the school. They talk when they play.

They make a few sounds above water. They make many more sounds under water. People cannot hear these sounds because they are very, very high. Scientists make tapes of the sounds and study them.around

Sometimes people catch a dolphin for a large aquarium. (An aquarium is a zoo for fish.) People can watch the dolphins in a show. Dolphins don’t like to be away from their school in an aquarium. They are sad and lonely.

There are many stories about dolphins. They help people. Sometimes they save somebody’s life. Dolphin meat is good, but people don’t like to kill them. They say that dolphins bring good luck. Many people believe this.

2.1. Why Are Elevators Important?

An elevator is wonderful. It is really only a small room. Rooms usually stay in one place. Elevators travel up and down all day long.

Sometimes a worker stands in the elevator. He or she runs it up and down. In modern elevators there is no worker. The people walk in. They know what floor they want. They push a button and the elevator goes to that floor. It is all very fast and easy.

Elevators are very important to us. Why? Think about a tall building. Maybe it has twenty floors. Maybe it has fifty or more. Who can walk up all those stairs? Maybe people can climb them one time. Can someone climb thirty floors to an office every day? Can small children walk up to their apartment on the twenty-fourth floor? Can their mother and father carry food up all those stairs? Of course not.

We can have high building because we have elevator. We could not have all the beautiful tall building in the world without elevators. They are

really wonderful.

5. 1. An Environmental Engineer

Stephen Martinez is an environmental engineer. He works in many places, both inside and outside. He works for companies and for the government. Today he is looking for dangerous gas and other toxic substances. Sometimes they have no taste or smell, but they can poison people, animals, or plants. He is testing the

dirt, air, and water near a large factory. He is digging a hole. He is using special tools collect samples.

Many countries need environmental engineers. In the modern world, more governments are paying for a cleaner environment. They do not want factories to pollute the earth, air, or water. They also want factories to store toxic substances in a safe way.

Now Stephen Martinez is covering the holes and finishing the tests. He is studying his mixtures and laying down his tools. He is finished for the day. Now he can relax.

Today is a good day for the company. Stephen Martinez did not find any toxic substances. Unlike another factory yesterday, this factory is clean. It is not polluting the air, water, or soil. It is safe for animals, plants, birds, and other living things.

5.2. A Human Resources Manager

Wanda Cheung is a human resources manager. She works for a large company. Right now she is teaching a class. Her students are not children but adults. They are manager. They are learning how to talk with the workers and how to help them. They are finding answers to the worker’s questions.

Modern companies understand that workers are people. Happy people work better and are more productive than unhappy the workers. Wanda Cheung’s job is to keep both the workers and the managers happy. Her job is also to motivate the workers. She is doing a good job. Her company is twenty percent more productive now than it was before.

Now Wanda Cheung is sitting at her desk in her office. Many applications from people who want to be workers are lying on the desk. Letters from workers and managers also reach her office.

It is the end of the day, and Wanda Cheung is tired. It is dark outside and a storm is coming. A worker from the office below Wanda’s office is saying goodnight.

5.3. A Computer Information Specialist

Katherine Boudreaux is a computer information specialist. Right now she is teaching a class about computers. She is teaching the workers how to change part of the computer. The computer is upside down, so she is holding on to it.

In Ms. Boudreaux’s class, the students are learning to relax. They feel afraid of the computer. Now, they have a computer beside them. Some of them are vary nervous.

In rooms with computers, the temperature has to be exactly right, not too high and not too low. No dirt at all can get into the computer. For example, one worker cannot use his computer now because he is eating a sandwich.

Computer information specialists do many different jobs. They have to invent ways for computer to help managers and workers in all parts of a company. They also tell their company when to buy new computers and what kind to buy.

Efficient use of computers can make companies more productive. Computer information specialists try to make the whole system, human and electronic, work efficiently.

5.4. A Firefighter

Glenda Smith is a firefighter. Right now, she and many other firefighters are going to a terrible fire at a factory. The people at the factory are afraid. They want the firefighters to appear soon to put out the fire. The fire is very hot. It smells bad, and people cannot breathe.

The firefighters are at the factory now. They are having some problems with the fire. There are rubber tires, fertilizer, tanks of gas, and other toxic substances nearby. These substances are very dangerous when they burn. They can pollute the air in the whole area.

Glenda Smith attended school to be a firefighter. She learned about dangerous substances. She knows how to help people breathe during a fire and how to carry large people. She can run and jump in difficult conditions.

Now Glenda and the other firefighters are coming back to the fire station. They feel happy. They solved the problems and put out the fire quickly. No one was hurt. They put out the fire efficiently with the help of a computer in the fire truck.

A group of children is passing through the fire station to learn about fighting fires. Glenda is showing them how she cleans her truck and her tools. She is telling them how much she likes her work.

When the fire station is quiet, Glenda and the other firefighters can relax. They can eat, sleep, listen to music, and play cards. Suddenly, they hear a loud sound. It is the fire alarm. They are going to fight another fire.

5.5. A Chimney Sweep

Bruce Chapman is a chimney sweep. He is going to work. His clothes are unusual for a worker. He is wearing a tall hat, a formal coat, and a silk tie. He has a broom in his hand. Many chimney sweeps dress this special way. Now Bruce is ringing the bell. After he enters the house, he changes his clothes.

Sweeping chimneys is a very old and dangerous job. Chimney sweeps today use expensive, modern equipment instead of brooms. They only carry the brooms. They store their equipment in their trucks.

Bruce has air tanks so he does not breathe toxic substances. Now he is covering his body, face, and hands to clean the chimney. Bruce has tools of many different shapes. He is filling the room with his tools.

Bruce finds spider webs, insects, and a small dead animal in the chimney. Now the chimney is clean, but Bruce’s work is not finished yet. He is cleaning the room and putting his tools back into the truck.

Chimney sweeps save lives. Chimney fires are dangerous and expensive. Twenty-eight percent of all house fires start in unsafe, dirty chimneys. If people do not have enough money to pay a chimney sweep, they clean their own chimneys.

6.2. The Ainu of Japan

The Ainu live in northern Japan on the island of Hokkaido. They do not look like other Japanese. They have round, dark brown eyes and wavy hair. Their skin is not dark but light. The men have beards and mustaches. Where did these people come from? Did they come from Europe across Russia to Japan? Did they come from Indonesia? Are they completely different from all the other people in the world? Nobody knows the answer to these questions.

The Ainu were in Japan seven thousand (7,000) years ago. In modern times, the Japanese brought new diseases to Ainu villages. Many people died. Today there are only a small number of Ainu left. There are also about 25,000 people who are part Ainu.

The Ainu eat seafood and grow rice and vegetables on their farms. The men hunt for brown bears in the forests. They eat the meat and sell the akins. The bear is also important in their religion.

People make their houses from a kind of grass. There is only one room inside. It has a dirt floor with an open fire in the middle. Their religion tells them that the house must have one window on the east side.

Young Ainu attend school with other Japanese. They speak Japanese, and many of them don’t know their own language. They want to be like other young Japanese.

The Sami in northern Europe want to continue their traditions. Some young Ainu don’t want to learn their traditions. When the older people die, many Ainu traditions will die with them.

6.4. The Hopi of Arizona

The Hopi live in the northeastern part of Arizona in the United States. The United States is a very modern country. Tall building, highways, computers, and hundreds of other modern things are part of every American’s life. Somehow, with modern things all around them, the Hopi keep their traditions.

There are about ten thousand (10,000) Hopi and they live in twelve villages in the desert. The weather is very hot in summer, but in winter it freezes. The wind blows hard. Farming is difficult.

Corn is the Hopi’s main food, but they plant vegetables too. They raise sheep, goats, and cattle. They also eat hamburgers and ice cream and drink soft drinks. They live in traditional stone houses, but many of them have telephones, radios, and television. They have horses, but they have pickup trucks too.

Kachinas are an important part of the Hopi religion. Kachinas are spirits of dead people, of rocks, plants, and animals, and of the stars. Men dress as kachnas and do religious dances. People also make wooden kachinas. No two wooden kachinas are ever alike.

The children attend school and learn English and other subjects. A few Hopi go to universities. Some of the adults live and work in nearby towns.

The children attend school, and they also learn the Hopi language, dances, and stories. The Hopi want a comfortable, modern life, but they don’t want to lose their traditions.

6.5. The Maori of New Zealand

Polynesians live on islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Maori are Polynesians and they live at the southern end of Polynesia in New Zealand. There are about 280,000 Maori today.

Maori, like other Polynesians, have brown skin, dark brown eyes, and wavy black hair. Men have beards and mustaches, but they usually shave them.

The Maori arrived in New Zealand from other Polynesia islands over a thousand years ago. They were the first people to live there. They made beautiful wooden buildings with pictures cut into the wood.

There was one terrible thing about their life. They fought wars among themselves for several centuries. Then British people came to live there in the 1790s, and some of the Mori fought them. In 1840 they agreed to become a British colony. This brought peace to the country. When they stopped fighting, they learned European ways quickly.

Today there are Maori in all kinds of jobs. They attend schools and universities and become lawyers and scientists. There are Maori in the government. Most of them live like the white New Zealand.

However, the Maori do not forget their traditions. Children learn the language, music, and old stories. They have yearly competitions in speaking, dancing, and singing. They practice for months. Then all the Maori in the area arrive to watch the competitions and see who wins. They also visit old friends.

Today the Maori live a comfortable, modern life. However, they are not losing their traditions because they pass them on to their children.

7.1. The Polynesians

The Polynesians were probably the best explorers in the history of the world. They traveled thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean in large double canoes. They could look at the stars and know which way to go. They also understand the wind and ocean currents. They made these maps out of sticks and shells.

About four thousand years ago a group of people lived in southern China. They were a mixture of white, black, and Mongol people. When the Chinese moved farther and farther into the south, these people needed to find safe homes.

Slowly these Polynesians left China in their double canoes and started toward the southeast. They took animals and plants with them. A group of people might arrive at an island and stay there until they had children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Then a few families might start traveling again. Some canoes went one way and some another. It took hundreds of years for them to reach all of the islands in Polynesia.

The Polynesia double canoe is one of the greatest inventions in history. The Polynesians were among the greatest sailors in history. They understood how to sail by the stars, wind, and ocean currents. This made them great explorers.

7.2. A Giraffe in Central Asia

Tamerlane (1336-1405) was a very strong Mongol leader. He and his soldiers fought until Tamerlane became the ruler of all Central Asia. Other countries wanted to make friends with Tamerlane. It was safe to be friends than enemies.

Ambassadors from many countries took gifts to Tamerlane. They took beautiful cloth, jewelry, gold (Au), and silver. They often tried to take something usually as a gift too.

In 1404, near the end of Tamerlane’s life, an Egyptian ambassador arrived in Samarkand. This was where Tamerlane lived. The ambassador and his men traveled on horses and camels. They brought a giraffe from Africa as a gift.

Egyptian camels and horses were used to walking in the desert. They did it all the time. A giraffe is not used to the desert. But this giraffe walked 5,000 kilometers from Cairo to Samarkand.

We know about the Egyptian ambassador’s gift because seversl people wrote about it. No one wrote that Tamerlane like it. However, we suppose that he was very pleased to have this strange African anomal in Central Asia.

7.3. The First Woman on Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is in the Himalayan Mountains between Nepal and China, and it is 8,900 Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal were the first people ever to climb Mount Everest. They climbed it in 1953. Men from several different countries climbed it after that.

Junko Tabei, a Japanese from Hokkaido, was the first woman to make this difficult climb. A Tokyo newspaper-television company organized the Mount Everest climb 1975. They chose fifteen women from mountaineer for several days. Then there was an avalanche. The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women. They had to stop climbing. The other five continued.

Only Ms. Tabei was able to climb the last 70 meters. She was standing on top of the world. She was the first women there.

Ms. Tabei was 35 years old at the time. She started climbing mountains in 1960. She still climbs mountains. She is not an ordinary Japanese housewife. Her husband works for Honda Motor Company. He likes to climb mountains, too. But he can’t have enough vacation from his work to go with his wife all the time. So he stays home to take care of the house and children.

Ms. Tabei earns money for her trips by teaching English and piano to children. She also speaks to groups of people about her mountain climbing. She climbs a mountain about every three years. She climbed the highest mountains on six continents. Finally, she wants to climb the highest mountain in every country in the world. When she reaches the top of a mountain, she think, “I’m glad that I’m at the top”. Then she climbs back down.

7.4. The European Raja of Sarawak

James Brooke (1803-1868) was born in India. However, he was British, not India. India was a British colony at that time, and James’s father was an official in the colonial government.

James attended school in England, and then he went into the army. He was injured in a war in Burma, so he left the army. He bought a boat and explored the islands off the coast of Asia.

Sarawak is on one of these islands. The name of the island is Kalimantan. Today most of Kalimantan belongs to Indonesia. While Mr. Brooke was traveling in Asia, there were problems in Sarawak. Some of the people did not like their leader, the raja, so they started fighting against him. The fighting continued and the raja couldn’t stop it. Finally, he asked Mr. Brooke for help.

Mr. Brooke asked the British navy to help him. They soon defeated the raja’s enemies. When the war was over, the raja asked Mr. Brooke to be the ruler of Sarawak. He became the raja. It was very unusual to have a European raja in Asia.

He was a good ruler. He organized a strong government, and there was no more fighting. Some of the people in the jungle were head hunters. They killed people and kept their heads. He made them stop.

After James Brooke’s death, his son became raja.Today Sarawak is part of Malaysia. Malaysia is an independent country instead

of a British colony. Sarawak has a governor, but he is not British. There are no more British rulers in Sarawak or Malaysia.

7.5. The Iditarod

Every year in early March, dogs pull sleds in a race along the Iditarod Trail. This trail is 1,770 kilometers long. It goes from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. The people who drive the dog teams are called musher.

A musher is an adventure. He runs by himself with his dogs. Some mushers are women. Susan Butcher is a famous musher. She won the Iditarod race four times. Rick Swenson won the race five times.

Mushers are very brave to go on this adventure. The dogs run across snow and ice pulling their sleds. Sometimes the mushers ride, and sometimes they walk. In 1991, Rick Swenson led his dogs through a snow storm. It was so dark that no one could see. He fell to his knees and got up again. In 1990, Susan Butcher’s dogs got sick. Then they came to a river where there was water on top of ice. They ware very lucky that they didn’t fall through the thin ice. No one could live in the icy water below.

At night the mushers sleep in tents. In the morning they can see footprints of wild animals near the camp. Sometimes they have to shoot at the wild animals to make them go away.

Thoughts and Notions

1.1. The ZipperThe zipper is a wonderful invention. How did people ever live without zipper? They

are very common, so we forget that they are wonderful. They are very strong, but they open and close very easily. They come in many colors and sizes.

In the 1890s, people in the United States wore high shoes with a long row of buttons. Women’s clothes often had rows of buttons too. People wanted an easier way to put on and take off clothes.

Whitcomb L. Judson invented the zipper in 1893. He was an engineer in Chicago. He called the zipper a slide fastener. However, it didn’t stay closed vary well. This was embarrassing, and people didn’t buy many of them. Then Dr. Gideon Sundback from Sweden solved this problem.

A zipper has three parts: 1. there are dozens of metal or plastic hooks (called teeth) in two rows. 2. There are fastened to two strips of cloth. The cloth strips are Flexible. They bend easily. 3. A fastener sliders along and fastens the hoods together. When it slides the other way, it takes the hooks apart.

Dr. Sundback put the hooks on the strips of cloth. The cloth holds all the hooks in place. They don’t come apart very easily. This solved the problem of the first zippers.

1. 2. The Postage StampBefore the invention of the postage stamp, it was difficult to send a letter to another

country. The sender paid for the letter to travel in his or her own country. Then the person in the other country paid for that part of the trip. If a letter crossed several countries, the problem was worse.

Rowland Hill, a British teacher, had the idea of a postage stamp with glue on the back. The British post office made the first stamps in 1840. They were the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue. A person bought a stamp and put it on a letter. The post office delivered the letter. When people received letter, they didn’t have to pay anything. The letters were prepaid.

Postage stamps became popular in Great Britain immediately. Other countries started making their own postage stamps very quickly.

There were still problems with international mail. Some countries did not want to accept letters with stamps from another country. Finally, in 1874, a German organized the Universal Postal System. Each country in the UPS agreed to accept letters with prepaid postage from the other members. Today, the offices of the UPS are in Switzerland. Almost every country in the world is a member of this organization. It takes cake of any international mail problem.

1.3. Pencils and Pens

No one knows who invented pencils or when it happened. A Swiss described a pencil in a book in 1565. He said it was piece of wood with lead inside it. (Lead is a very heavy metal). Pencils weren’t popular, and people continued to write with pens. They used bird feathers as pens.

Then in 1795 someone started making pencils from graphite and they secame very popular. Graphite is a kind of coal. (Coal is black, and we burn it for heat and energy). Today people make pencils in the same way. They grind the graphite, make it into the shape of a stick and bake it. Then they put it inside a piece of wood. One pencil can write 50,000 English words or make a line 55 kilometer long.

People wrote with feather pens and then used pens with metal points. They had to dip the point into ink after every few letters. Next someone invented a fountain pen that could hold ink inside it. A fountain pen can write several pages before you have to fill it again.

Two Hungarian brothers, Ladislao and Gearg Biro, invented the ballpoint pen that we all use today. They left Hungary and stared making ballpoint pens in England in 1943 during World War II. English pilots liked the pens. They couldn’t write with fountain pens in airplanes because the ink leaked out. Later, a French company called Bic bought the Biro’s company.

Some people call ballpoint pens a bic. Australians call them biros. Whatever we call them, we use them every day.

1.4. Umbrellas

The umbrella is a very ordinary object. It keeps the rain and the sun off people. Most umbrellas fold up, so it easy to carry them.

However, the umbrella did not begin life as an ordinary object. It was a sign of royalty or importance. Some African tribes still use umbrellas in this way today. Someone carries an umbrella and walks behind the king or important person.

Umbrellas are very old. The Chinese had them in the eleventh century B. C. From there, umbrellas traveled to India, Persia, and Egypt. In Greece and Rome, men wouldn’t use them. They believed umbrellas were only for women.

When the Spanish explorers went to Mexico, they saw the Aztec kings using umbrellas. English explorers saw Native American princes carrying umbrella on the east coast of North America. It seems that people in different parts of the world invented umbrellas at different times.

England was probably the first country in Europe where ordinary people used umbrellas against the rain. England has a rainy climate, and umbrellas are very useful there.

Everybody uses umbrellas today. The next time you carry one, remember that for centuries only great men and women used them. Perhaps you are really a king or queen, a princess or prince.

1.5. The Metric System

People all over the world use kilograms, centimeters, square meters, liters, and Celsius (C). These are all ways to measure things. They are all part of the metric system.

During the French Revolution (1789-1799) against the king, the revolutionary government stared the metric system. Before that, every part of France had a different system for measuring things. Also, cloth makers measured cloth with one system.

Jewelers used another system. Carpenters used another. Other countries used other systems. The revolutionary government wanted one international scientific system of measurement. They asked a group of scientists and mathematicians to invent a system.

The mathematicians and scientists decided to use the numbers ten, hundred, and thousand for their system. Next they had to decide on a “natural” length. They chose one ten-millionth (1/10,000,000) of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole. They called this one meter. Then they chose one gram for weighing things. A cubic centimeter of water weighs one gram.

Mathematicians and scientists worked on these problems for twenty years until they finally finished the complete system. The biggest problem was measuring the meter.

The metric system was a wonderful gift to the world. There are only a few countries that don’t use it. The United States is one. The metric system is truly an international system.

2.1. Thai Boxing

Boxing is popular in many countries. Two fighters wear boxing gloves on their hands. A bell rings. The boxers hit each other until one knocks out the other. Each part of the fight is three minutes long. It is called a round.

Thai boxing is different.The boxing match begins with music from drums and flutes. Then the two fighters

kneel and pray to God. Next they do a slow dance that copies the movements of Thai boxing. During this dance, each fighter tries to show the other that he is best.

Then the fight begins. In Thai boxing, the fighters can kick with their feet and hit each other with their elbows and knees. Of course, they hit with their hands too. Each round is three minutes long. Then the boxers can fight only five rounds because this kind of fighting is very difficult.

Thai boxing began over five hundred (500) years ago. If a soldier lost his weapons in a battle, he needed to fight just his body. The soldiers learned to fight how to use all the parts of their body. In 1560, the Burmese army captured Naresuen, the King of Thailand, in a war. King Naresuen was a very good boxer. He won his freedom from Burma by defeating all the best Burmese fighters. When he returned to Thailand, his people were very proud of him. Thai boxing became a popular sport.

2.2. Curling

Curling is a popular sport in Canada. However, it probably started in Scotland or Holland around three hundred (300) years ago.

There are two teams with four people on each team in curling. They play on a sheet of ice that is 45 meters long and 4.3 meters wide.

Each player slides two heavy stones toward the “house” circle at the opposite end of the ice sheet. The stores weigh almost twenty kilos. Each stone is flat on the top and bottom and has a handle on the top. The player swings the stone off the ice, and it curls or curves as it slides along. It does not go in a straight line.

While one player throws the stone, his teammates sweep in front of the stone. This smoothes the ice. The players believe that the stone travels faster on smooth ice, and

it can go farther. The captain of the team yells, “Sweep!” and the teammates star sweeping the ice.

Usually people sweep the floor or the sidewalk with a broom. They don’t sweep as a sport. Curling is an unusual game.

2.3.3 Lacrosse

Lacrosse is another popular sport in Canada. It is one of the oldest organized sports in America. The Native Americans in northern New York State and Southern Ontario, Canada, invented lacrosse. They used it to train for war. They invented this game before Columbus arrived in the New World.

People play lacrosse outdoors. The field is seventy meters long. At each end of the field there is a goal. The goal is a net. There are ten players on each team. Each player has a stick called a crosse. The players hit a ball that is 21 centimeters around and weighs 140 grams. They try to hit the ball into the net as many times as possible. Lacrosse is a very fast game because the players can catch and pass the ball at a high speed with their sticks.

At one time lacrosse was the national summer sport in Canada. It is also popular in Britain and Australia.

2.4. Sumo

Sumo wrestling is a national sport in Japan. Every year there are six tournaments, and millions of Japanese watch them on television. A tournament is a series of matches.

Sumo is almost as old as the nation of Japan itself. Stories say that there was sumo wrestling over two thousand (2,000) years ago. History says that there were national sumo tournaments in the eighth century.

Often, athletes are thin and can move very quickly. It is beautiful to watch them play. However, sumo wrestlers weigh from 100 to 160 kilos. One famous wrestler weighed 195 kilos. Sumo wrestlers do not look beautiful, and sumo wrestling is a very slow sport.

Sumo wrestlers start training when they are boys. They exercise to make their bodies strong. They also eat and eat and eat.

They wrestle in a round ring with a sand floor. A wrestler loses the match if he leaves the ring. He is also the loser if any part of his body except his feet touches the floor. Each wrestler tries to push the other down on the floor or out of the ring. Sometimes one wrestler just steps aside when the other wrestler rushes toward him. Then that wrestler falls down or falls out of the ring.

Sumo is not very popular in other countries, but the Japanese love it. Even young people find this traditional sport exciting.

2.5. Tarahumara Foot Races

The Tarahumara live in the mountains in the state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico. This is an area of high mountains and deep tropical valleys. It someyimes snows in the mountains in winter. The Tarahumara live in caves, or in wooden or atone houses. They have small farms. There are not many roads.

Other Mexican tribes use horses or donkeys for travel. The Tarahumara walk wherever they need to go. They carry heavy baskets on their backs. Perhaps this is why the Tarahumara are excellent runners. They can run many kilometers without getting tired, and they like to organize races.

When the men race, they kick a wooden ball ahead of them while they run. Before they start racing, they plan where and how long they will run. They might run just s few minutes, or they might run for several hours. Sometimes they run in teams, and sometimes each person runs as an individual.

The women’s races are similar except that the women do not kick a ball. They throw a wooden hoop in front of them with a stick. A hoop is a ring or circle.

The Tarahumara have other games and sports. They even play a kind of lacrosse. However, they are famous because they can run so fast and so far.

3.1. The Puffer Fish

Most people avoid eating dangerous foods. They don’t want to get sick. However, there is one food that may be deadly, yet some people eat it on purpose. It’s called the puffer fish.

This species of fish, called fugu in Japanese die every year from eating fugu. In fact, the Emperor of Japan is not allowed to touch it. Why? Well, the insides of the puffer fish are very poisonous. They contain a venom 275 times more powerful than the deadly poison cyanide.

Usually nothing bad happens when fugu is on the menu. Customers leave the restaurant with happy smiles on their faces. The chefs are trained to remove the insides of the puffer fish before they serve it to their customers. If they miss even a small amount, the fish is not safe to eat. If a chef is careless, the customers stop smiling and get sick.

Puffer fish is very expensive. A plate of fugu costs more than $200 in some restaurants in Tokyo. Besides this, the fish is very ugly, with spines all over its body. Also, it can puff itself up to double its normal size. That’s the reason for its name. Why do the Japanese risk so much for such an ugly and dangerous fish? Well, some people like taking risks. And fugu is absolutely delicious!

3.3, Chocolate

We now think of chocolate as sweet, but once it was bitter. We think of it as a candy, but once it was a medicine. Today, chocolate can be a hot drink, a frozen dessert, or just a snack. Sometimes it’s an ingredient in the main course of a meal. Mexicans make a hot chocolate sauce called mole and pour it over chicken. The Mexicans also eat chocolate with spices like chili peppers.

Chocolate is a product of the tropical cacao tree. The beans taste so bitter that even the monkeys say “ugh!” and run away. Workers must first dry and then roast the beans. This removes the bitter taste.

The word “chocolate” comes from a Mayan word. The Mayas were an ancient people who once lived in Mexico. They valued the cacao tree. Some used the beans for money, while others crushed them to make a drink.

When the Spaniards came to Mexico in the sixteenth century, they started drinking cacao too. Because the drink was strong and bitter, they thought it was a medicine. No one had the idea of adding sugar. The Spaniards took some beans back to Europe and opened cafes. Wealthy people drank cacao and said it was good for the digestion.

In the 1800s the owner of a chocolate factory in England discovered that sugar removed the bitter taste of cacao. It quickly became a cheap and popular drink. Soon afterward, a factory made the first solid block of sweetened chocolate. Later on, another factory mixed milk and chocolate together. People liked the taste of milk chocolate even better.

Besides the chocolate candy bar, one of the most popular American snacks is the chocolate-chip cookie. Favorite desserts are chocolate cream pie and, of course, an ice cream sundae with hot fudge sauce.

3.4. The Healthy Hunza

For a long time, people believed there was a place in the Himalayas where the inhabitants live forever. They called the place Shangri-La. This name came to mean “paradise” in the English language.

A lot of the stories about Shangri-La are untrue. However, some are accurate. The original Shangri-la was the Hunza valley, a remote region in the high mountains of northern Pakistan. The Hunza people don’t live forever, but many live to be over one hundred years old. They appear to be among the healthiest people in the world. They are certainly immune to the many diseases of this area.

Why is this? People who have traveled to this remote area say it’s because the Hunza diet is so healthy. The inhabitants eat only what they grow. Grain, fruit and vegetables are their daily food. They seldom eat butter or eggs. They eat meat only on important feast days. Their only sweet dish is dried apricots. The Hunza never drink alcohol. Their religion forbids it. Sugar and canned food are also unknown to them.

There are two other reasons why the Hunza diet is so healthy. Firstly, there are few trees in the high mountains of the Hunza region, so wood for the kitchen stove is scarce. This means that the inhabitants must cook their food quickly. Doctors now say that short cooking times are best for a healthy diet. Secondly, the Hunza have a limited area of farmland. Their valley is only one mile wide because it lies between some very high mountains. They can never grow extra crops, and as a result their food is carefully rationed. That is why you never see an overweight Hunza.

3.5. Food of the FutureScientists are always trying out new ways of growing food, but even they can

only guess that food will be like in the future. You can perhaps get a better focus on what lies ahead from the four ideas below. Read them and see if you can guess what the future hamburger will taste like.

The sea can be farmed. Only one third of the earth’s area is land. The remainder is sea. The ocean contains huge amounts of tiny sea-animals called krill. Krill are already in some fish products, such as fish sticks and canned crab. Next time you buy canned or frozen seafood look carefully at the label. You might see krill listed as one of the ingredients. Seaweed is another source of future food from the ocean. It is used in ice cream and some breads.

Animals can be changed. A farmer is able to “engineer” his animals by adding hormones to their feed. Hormones can make chicken meat more tender or beef less fat. For example, dairy farmers add growth hormones so that calves produce milk sooner than normal.

New crops can be planted. Today, rice supports more than half the world’s population. But it takes a lot of water to grow rice. Scientists predict the climate will get drier during the next century. Therefore, it might be impossible to grow rice in the future. Some farmers are experimenting with new crops. Farmers like to grow beans because they don’t need much water, and beans also improve the quality of the soil. The soybean makes a good substitute for rice and meat. People can now eat soyburgers in some restaurant.

Plants can be grown inside. Some vegetables are now grown without soil and under artificial light. In Japan, there is an indoor lettuce farm run by machines and computers. The lettuce travels along slowly moving belts toward a supermarket next door. By the time the lettuce is ready, it’s outside the supermarket door. Five minutes later, shoppers can buy fresh lettuce.

So what is the future hamburger to be like? Let’s go there and see. The bun is light and toasty, even though it began life as seaweed. On the bun there is some fresh green lettuce that grew under artificial light. The patty is made from soybean, not from beef. Everyone is vegetarian because it’s healthier. On top of the soybean patty is a slice of cheese made from the milk of engineered cows. The ketchup is also different. The writing on the label says, “Krillup. Made from highest quality krill”